Footballers Chris Judd, Leo Barry pile into Paradigm raising

A group of AFL footballers including former Carlton players Chris Judd, Andrew Walker and renowned former Sydney Swan Leo Barry have pumped money into a drug company that is hoping to change the way osteoarthritis is treated.

Former Carlton player Chris Judd has experienced osteoarthritis first hand. Sebastian Costanzo

Paradigm chief executive Paul Rennie told AFR Weekend that repurposing drugs was a much quicker process than creating them from scratch and had been proven to deliver strong returns to investors, with drugs used to treat psoriasis and angina now repurposed to treat multiple sclerosis and erectile dysfunction delivering billions in annual sales.

"Even though we've raised a lot of money, compared to new drugs that have to raise billions we've raised only a fraction of that and we'll get returns much quicker," he said.

The $267 million company, which was founded in 2014 by Mr Rennie and scientist Dr Peter Ghosh, has spent five years filing patents, securing the commercial rights and testing the viability of repurposing deep-vein thrombosis drug PPS (Pentosan Polysulfate Sodium) to be used for treating osteoarthritis.

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Having secured the rights to sell the drug to treat musculoskeletal disorders like osteoarthritis from German pharmaceutical company Bene pharmaChem in August 2015, the company went public on the ASX at an issue price of 35¢. Since then it has been conducting clinical trials into the effectiveness of the drug for the joint-destroying disease that is associated with joint pain, stiffness and reduced mobility. This week's capital raise was conducted at $1.50 a share.

Mr Rennie said early clinical trials had revealed that patients treated with two PPS injections a week for six weeks experienced a significant reduction in osteoarthritis symptoms for six months. In comparison, existing anti-inflammatory treatments and opioid-based treatments lost their effectiveness after 24 hours of no usage.

"There's been increasingly higher rates of opioid prescription to deal with this chronic pain issue ... So this is a real opportunity to treat this chronic pain with a safe drug that doesn't have dependency issues."

Hope for footballers

"I suffer from osteoarthritis and after years of footy and problems with my shoulders, I’m keenly aware of the lack of effectiveness that current anti-inflammatory and cortisone-based treatments provide," he said.

"Paradigm’s repurposing of this drug provides hope that pain can be controlled in a safe and long-term way, while potentially reversing some of the damage, improving function, movement and ultimately quality of life.

"I’m looking forward to the third phase trial results from both a patient and investor perspective.”

Andrew Walker, who played 202 AFL games, suffered with knee pain for most of his career, with his surgeon wanting to do a knee replacement when he was only 29. When he retired in 2016, Mr Rennie said he could barely walk down the hallway after AFL games.

"We are 3.5 years into public life and if we have a product on the market within six or so years we'll have done our job."

— Paul Rennie, Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals CEO

Since taking part in the PPS trial, he's been able to return to play country footy and can run up to 30 kilometres a week.

And it's not just local athletes who have recognised the benefits of PPS for the knee-killing disease.

Paradigm has a deal in the works with the US National Football League to treat 50 players with PPS, which it is currently seeking a Food and Drug Administration clearance waiver to commence.

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Clinical trials

While signs for the drug look promising, its final clinical trial (which will involve up to 600 people largely in North America), will take at least two years to be completed.

At this point, if its results go well it will be able to apply for FDA approval, which in turn will help it get approval with the relevant authorities in Europe, Australia and Asia.

The FDA approval process could take another six to nine months after the phase three clinical trial is complete.

Effectively this means the company has another three years or so of development and testing until it could generate revenues.

Once it has received FDA approval, it will begin selling the drug in the US in partnership with a big pharma company.

Mr Rennie said it was a multibillion-dollar opportunity, with 31 million osteoarthritis sufferers in the US alone and pricing to likely be set around $US2000-3000 per treatment.

"We are 3.5 years into public life and if we have a product on the market within six or so years we'll have done our job and set investors with the notion that repurposed drug opportunities are valuable and don't require a 20-year discovery period," he said.